Is the CIA the real B613? Life imitates art as damning report reveals horrific torture

The CIA has come into the uncomfortable spotlight over torture revelationsGetty

In season three of ABC White House drama Scandal we were introduced to B613, a fictional agency that operates outside the bounds of the government, using its unlimited budget to "protect the Republic" at all costs.

For conspiracy theorists previously shunned by society, it was all the assurance that they needed that they were right to distrust the US government.

In the show, the top secret CIA subdivision dishes out torture and high level assassinations like candy and the Command character has more power than the United States President. Scary stuff.

But how accurate are the show's story lines?

Impressive scriptwriting by Shonda Rhimes or is Scandal alluding to something more sinister? This is the question forums and blogs have been raising for months.

Following the release of the US senate's damning torture report into the CIA's interrogation methods during the Bush administration, it looks as if it might be the latter.

Similar to B613, the CIA subjected detainees and terror suspects to waterboarding, sleep deprivation, mock executions, ice baths and rectal dehydration. One suspect even died of hypothermia after he was chained naked to the floor inside the detention centre known as the Colbat or Salt Pit.

The reports also detailed the fact that CIA officers threatened to kill the children of detainees and rape the mother of one man.

I recall one episodes of Scandal, where Huck, played by Guillermo Diaz, was locked in a crate (sensory deprivation) and left for dead and his families lives were threatened by B613. His character later suffered hallucinations and the memories of the torture sessions haunted him.

Although Scandal's President Grant is vaguely aware of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by B613, there is no way of knowing whether real life President Barack Obama was in the loop.

Either way, the US Commander and Chief has publicly condemned the questionable techniques and admitted that they proved counter-productive.

"These techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners," Obama said in a television interview with the Spanish-language television network Telemundo.

"I hope that today's report can help us leave these techniques where they belong, in the past."

Despite Obama's efforts to pacify the situation, United Nations and several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), want the US agents involved held accountable for their actions and who would blame them.

Thanks to the cult-like following of shows like Scandal, we don't need much of a vivid imagination to picture the methods that the CIA used to extract information.

Scandal was delving into the dark side of modern day politics long before the CIA's torture report was republished and until lawmakers, the CIA and other 'government agencies' fix their moral compass, it will continue to serve as a reminder to the crippling effects of torture to the victims and those willing to dish it out.